The first-ever ammonite fossil trapped in amber is found in northern Myanmar

A marine creature that lived 99 million years ago was found preserved in amber in an extremely rare find.

The fossil, found in northern Myanmar, is the first known example of ammonite trapped in amber-hardened tree resin.

Normally, amber envelops and immortalizes creatures living in the forest, captures them, prevents them from escaping and hardens.

Amber, which is also home to various terrestrial organisms, is thought to have formed on a beach riddled with shells near resin-producing trees.

The amber block of 33 mm long, 9.5 mm wide and 29 mm high houses various organisms of the world during the Cenomanian era.

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Professor Wang Bo of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Academy of Sciences of China (NIGPAS) reported the discovery.

The plethora of organisms includes at least 40 individual animals, according to the study.

Of the terrestrial fauna found in amber, mites are the most abundant.

The researchers write in the study: "Amber is a fossilized tree resin and inclusions usually include terrestrial organisms and, rarely, aquatic organisms. Marine fossils are extremely rare in Cretaceous and Cenozoic amber. & # 39;

But the menagerie also included spiders, centipedes, roaches, beetles, flies and wasps, most of which would have lived on the forest floor.

Among the marine fauna, besides the ammonite itself, are sea snails and sea slaters. The slaters are like those who live by the sea today.

The researchers used X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) to obtain three-dimensional, high-resolution images of organisms.

They discovered that ammonite is a juvenile puzosia (Bhimaites) and that its presence in amber favors a recent Albian-Early Cenomanian age for the amber deposit.

This discovery represents a rare example of dating using amber inclusions.

The researchers found that the ammonite envelope had been broken and that the entrance to the envelope was full of sand. Amber also contains extra sand.

They add in their article published in the journal PNAS: "The incomplete preservation and the absence of soft body of ammonite and marine gastropods suggest that they were dead and had suffered abrasion at the edge of the sea before burial.

"It is very likely that the resin fell from coastal trees on the beach, picking up terrestrial arthropods and beach shells and, exceptionally, surviving the high energy beach environment to be preserved as of l & # 39; amber "

The flying insects lived near the trees and found themselves trapped in the resin while it was still on the plant and before it fell to the ground, where it captured the destroyed and dead marine animals.